Brian Lara hits successful solo rescue mission double ton at Adelaide, the fat lady is in full voice for AB's record.....

Australia v West Indies, 3rd Test, Adelaide, 1st day

Fascinating fightback

Peter English

November 25, 2005

As Brian Lara sweated over his 31st Test century there were moments of bad misjudgment and flashes when it could have been his record-breaking 1994. Eleven years later there was no new world mark. That should come on day two as he needs only 12 runs to pass Allan Border's 11,174 after an unbeaten double-century in a wonderfully successful solo rescue mission.

Entering like royalty with a standing ovation from the Adelaide members, Lara became the second man to break 11,000 and he fought, grabbed, crashed and swatted to ensure a disastrous tour of Australia, which is almost certainly his last, finished with something memorable. Poor umpiring decisions have been a major reason for his difficulties as the series was lost in two matches, but Lara did not complain and set about rectifying his personal situation with an innings most geniuses wouldn't have bothered with.

Lara deserved the hours of applause - the spectators were literally up and down all day - and he played patiently when not at his best before loosening with a second fifty from 52 deliveries. The pace remained constant throughout the rest of an entertaining afternoon and by stumps he had collected 57% of West Indies' 7 for 352.

Playing and missing at the start and finish, Lara made a horrible early mistake in padding up to Andrew Symonds, easing the imbalance of previous incorrect decisions. The slowing of reflexes and focussing of the eyes expected from a 36-year-old also showed as he flinched at short balls from Symonds and Glenn McGrath in the 120kph range, and on occasions he failed to pick Stuart MacGill's wrong-un out of the hand or off the pitch.

Sometimes the bat face closed too quickly and on others it was not fast enough, but then he would break free with a full flowing square drive, like the one off Brett Lee to go to 96, or unfurl a sweet blast through cover, or combat Shane Warne and MacGill with surges of astounding one-handed sweeps. His application was incredible as he produced an intriguing mix of battling and brilliance. A wicket looked close at many points but it was a result few people not wearing green caps wanted. He deserves to be not out when the innings closes.

The half-century came in slightly more than two hours and his pulled boundary to bring up his century was a miscue, an error he corrected in raising his 200 with a four straight from the middle. Warne shook Lara's hand as he posted three figures and when he looked to the sky to reflect he mouthed "thank you". There was similar sentiment towards this small man with a tiny moustache from the supporters, especially when his top-order team-mates had tumbled after winning the toss.

Lee had three wickets before lunch and Symonds arrived with a swinging display that gave hope he could make useful contributions at this level. Starting with four maidens, he remained tight and cleverly deceived Shivnarine Chanderpaul for his second Test wicket. Symonds, who switched to offspin after tea, was upset not to have Lara lbw with his first ball and then used a lot of effort trying to cut off his square boundaries at deep point.

Adelaide has been fortunate to host two of Lara's Test fifties, a couple of his centuries and a brutal limited-overs hundred. This was not an innings of all-encompassing beauty but it was a fabulous fightback from a series of individual and team anguish. The performance the Australians had been wary of and the rest of the world had waited for through the Super Series and the first two Tests had finally arrived. The next stop is the Border crossing.

Peter English is the Australasian editor of Cricinfo

© Cricinfo

Sums up the United States' relationship with Israel

Memo: Bush wanted Aljazeera bombed

US President George Bush planned to bomb Aljazeera, British newspaper the Daily Mirror has reported, citing a Downing Street memo marked top secret.

The five-page transcript of a conversation between Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair reveals that Blair talked Bush out of launching a military strike on the station, unnamed sources told the daily.

The transcript of the pair's talks during Blair's 16 April 2004 visit to Washington allegedly shows Bush wanted to attack the satellite channel's headquarters in Doha, Qatar.

Blair allegedly feared such a strike, in the capital of Qatar, a key Western ally in the Gulf, would spark revenge attacks.

Aljazeera has said in a news statement that it is investigating the report and urged the US and British governments to challenge it.

A British civil servant has been charged under the Official Secrets Act for allegedly leaking the government memo.

Civil servant accused

Cabinet Office civil servant David Keogh is accused of passing the memo to Leo O'Connor, who formerly worked for former British lawmaker Tony Clarke.

Both Keogh and O'Connor are scheduled to appear at London's Bow Street Magistrates Court next week.


According to the Daily Mirror, Clarke returned the memo to Blair's office. Clarke could not immediately be contacted for comment on Tuesday.

The Mirror on Tuesday quoted an unnamed British government official as saying Bush's threat was "humorous, not serious".

Aljazeera's coverage of the war in Iraq had drawn criticism from Washington after the US-led March 2003 invasion.

A source told the Mirror: "The memo is explosive and hugely damaging to Bush.

"He made clear he wanted to bomb Aljazeera in Qatar and elsewhere. Blair replied that would cause a big problem.

"There's no doubt what Bush wanted to do - and no doubt Blair didn't want him to do it."

Deadly serious

Another source said: "Bush was deadly serious, as was Blair. That much is absolutely clear from the language used by both men."

A spokesman for Blair's Downing Street office said: "We have got nothing to say about this story. We don't comment on leaked documents."

Clarke, the former lawmaker, told Britain's domestic Press Association news agency that O'Connor had done "exactly the right thing" in bringing it to his attention.

The Mirror said such a strike would have been "the most spectacular foreign-policy disaster since the Iraq war itself".

The newspaper said that the memo "casts fresh doubt on claims that other attacks on Aljazeera were accidents". It cited the 2001 direct hit on the channel's Kabul office in Afghanistan.

In April 2003, an Aljazeera journalist died when its Baghdad office was struck during a US bombing campaign. Nabil Khoury, a US State Department spokesman in Doha, said the strike was a mistake.

In November 2002, Aljazeera's office in Kabul, Afghanistan, was destroyed by a US missile. None of the crew was at the office at the time. US officials said they believed the target was a terrorist site and did not know it was Aljazeera's office.

Downing Street challenged

Blair's former defence minister Peter Kilfoyle challenged Downing Street to publish the transcript.

"I believe that Downing Street ought to publish this memo in the interests of transparency, given that much of the detail appears to be in the public domain," Kilfoyle told the Press Association.

"I think they ought to clarify what exactly happened on this occasion. If it was the case that President Bush wanted to bomb Aljazeera in what is after all a friendly country, it speaks volumes and it raises questions about subsequent attacks that took place on the press that wasn't embedded with coalition forces."

Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesman Sir Menzies Campbell told the Press Association: "If true, then this underlines the desperation of the Bush administration as events in Iraq began to spiral out of control.

"On this occasion, the prime minister may have been successful in averting political disaster, but it shows how dangerous his relationship with President Bush has been."

Abd al-Bari Atwan's reaction

Speaking to Aljazeera from London on Monday, Abd al-Bari Atwan, chief editor of the London-based Al-Quds al-Arabi newspaper, said: "The issue of Bush's plan to bomb Aljazeera's headquarters in Doha will be widely discussed in Washington and London.

"Reporters in the US and Britain are enraged by reported US plans to use force against media organs.

"Arab and international media organs are now under a terrorist campaign launched by the US as it does not want the truth to be revealed.

"This [US] administration has been disgraced as it has used immoral and illegal ways to occupy and tear out a country, kill more than 100,000 and wound more than 400,000 of its people.

"The results of the war, being revealed now in Iraq, have forced reporters to ask why they have been misled.

"New York Times has apologised, saying it has misled public opinion when it did not accurately investigate the objectives of the US administration.

"I believe that considering use force against a media station is the worst kind of media terrorism practised by a country which pretends to lead the free world, democratic values and media freedom."